With the new year comes fresh opportunities for us all to practice acts of resilience. No matter how together we may strive for our lives to appear to others, we each are faced with challenges both big and small. As resilience is defined as “buoyancy, elasticity, and the act of rebounding,” it becomes indispensable during times of transition, such as the several moves for Linda and I since becoming minimalists more than a decade ago.
Depending on your personality type you can relish the changes such upheaval brings or you may need a period of adjustment to place events in perspective. While moving for us has been an enjoyable experience overall, the older we get the more we are considering the blessing of roots, such as our move here to my home state of Virginia. Not only do I have family and friends here but we are closer to Linda’s clan also.
As I wrote about at Rainbows and Unicorns, even our experience of living at a lighthouse on the coast of Maine (pictured above) was not without its unique challenges. And suffice it to say that we experienced some more upon moving here, including maintenance issues like a six-months-long leaky shower and a hit-and-run automobile accident our first week here. All this highlights the need for us to bounce back from adversity rather than adopting lousy attitudes.
With any move comes the need to establish accounts with local vendors and we are gradually securing the services of a dentist, hairstylist, insurance agent, tax preparer, cell provider, and the like. And after the remoteness of life in coastal Maine, it is nice that our relatively small hamlet here is getting a Starbucks, Dunkin’and Chick-fil-A this year, so life is good in these parts. Wherever you may call home, here is to a more resilient you this year!